Marks and Spencer closing 11 cafes across UK high streets

Marks and Spencer has revealed that 11 of its cafes across the country will close as it plans a £300 million shake-up. No staff are to lose their jobs as the supermarket has promised that they will be redeployed. Marks and Spencer explained that the move is being made to make more space for some of its popular products. This comes as other British supermarkets, such as Morrisons, announce closures of cafes in their stores around the UK.

Marks and Spencer has more than 300 food shops around the country, many of which have cafes in them. The recently announced closures will affect less than 4% of the supermarket's stores. Marks and Spencer plans to open more food halls, and the cafe closures are part of the shake-up that will make way for more food products in stores. By the end of 2028, the supermarket chain plans to have 420 food stores across the country. It has also announced the opening of six new food stores before Christmas.

A spokesperson for M&S said: "As we look to modernise our food business and offer the best of M&S Food to more people, more often, we're investing in our store estate to give our customers the widest possible product range.

"This includes opening brand-new coffee shops offering delicious food and barista-made fairtrade coffee, including at our brand-new Bristol Cabot Circus store.

"In some of our small Food stores, where customers want a greater range of M&S Food, our transformation also involves repurposing cafe space across 11 small food stores, out of over 300 M&S cafes, coffee shops and coffee-to-go locations."

M&S has not revealed which cafes are set to close or when they will shut. The Daily Express contacted the supermarket's press team to ask for these details.

Marks and Spencer has already converted several full-line stores into food stores in the UK as part of the shake-up. M&S is recovering from a major cyber attack that cost the company an estimated £300 million.

Online orders were forced to a halt for six weeks as the supermarket dealt with the attack in April of this year.Hackers also targeted Co-op and Harrods this year.